One Path, Two Goals: China's Technological Domination Over Tibet

The Republic of China never attained direct control over Tibet, and so there was a de facto independent Tibetan state. This unofficial and unrecognized country continued to exist for about forty years. During this time, Tibet was controlled by a very conservative people. Refusing to modernize and/or industrialize. When the communist revolution in China occurred, and the former government fled to Taiwan, they would have to face a new threat: the People’s Republic of China. The People’s Republic claimed that the Tibetan government was exploiting the citizens as serfs, and that they should be liberated from them by none other than the People’s Liberation Army. Although Tibet actually had a high resemblance to medieval European feudalism, the government never exploited the citizens per se. When the PLA was at their doorstep, they were nowhere near prepared and were conquered by the Chinese. They were eventually officially annexed into China, and the 14th Dalai Lama was exiled to India. Under the PRC, the Tibetans endured many hardships that were brought upon them. The so-called Great Leap Forward led to widespread starvation, and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution led the Red Army to destroy thousands of cultural artifacts and sites,

Tibetan Buddhists Genocide What Is Genocide? A Genocide are the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. In other words a Genocide is one type of people deciding to kill another type of people because of their race, religion, or just different. For example, Adolph Hitler killed Jewish people because he thought Jewish people were the reason why the Germans lost World War I Tibetan Buddhists The religion of Tibetan, a form of Mahayana Buddhism. However, Tibet refers to a mountainous region in Central Asia, covering 2.5 million square kilometers. Today, Tibet occupied by China. However, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people, lives in exile in India,

Western imperialism in China had a very significant impact, it costed the lives of millions of people, but also helped shape China into a much stronger country than it was during the Qing Dynasty. Imperialism is a country extending its power and influence through the use of military force. There were two wars between the imperialists and China, the infamously called the First and Second Opium wars. The result of these wars was the weakening of the Qing Dynasty and led to a time of rebuilding, which was a great struggle for China. The Europeans wanted to trade with China because of the great opportunity that they saw in the market. China’s population, which was 430 million, was seen as a fast and easy way for the Europeans to make a lot of money. The Chinese refused to cooperate for trade which lead to the conflicts and eventually forced China to concede and have the trade ports opened. China was faced with circumstances they had never dealt with before and suffered from a series of crisis’ worse than any others in their history.

Hong Kong and Taiwan have claimed independence from mainland China, but political concerns are arising. Since the ruling class controls the state power, China sought its own interest and define its interest as the interest of the nation-state. Liberals would argue that Tibet, Hong Kong, and Taiwan should be respected and allow them to self-govern. Even though, China wants to gain all forms of power with trying to get ahold of these countries, it will be more of a benefit to let them self-govern and try to work together. Chinese scholars began to engage the more orthodox intellectuals in the debate over china’s interest in the 1990s. Yet, according to Qin, he would argue that China was trying to establish somewhat of a liberalism concept. Qin could have this approach since China’s most important national interest was economic development and the most cost efficient way to realize that was from China to take under their power Tibet, Hong Kong, and

It was a beautiful spring day. The crops were nearly ready to harvest, but all I could do was meditate and pray. My mother fell ill during the winter and wasn’t able to move by herself. After an hour of mantras, I left her to sleep, walked out to the hill, and saw a man in a purple kimono.

In the year 1958, the People’s Republic of China was looking to be on the cusp of modernization. With the Communist Party of China (CPC) coming to power in 1949 and the nation ripe for communist organization similar to that of the Soviet Union, Chairman Mao Zedong and his advisors looked to transition China from a socialist structure until the standard of living improved to the point where the country could become fully communist. With a population of over half a million, this goal was not out of reach, and the people of China knew that they had the potential to establish their dominance as an industrial superpower. The Great Leap Forward, set to span over several years starting in 1958, was a movement meant to industrialize China to the level of the UK by utilizing the massive peasant farmer population and moving part of them to the urban center in northern and western China, collectivizing the remaining farmer population.

Tibet is located to the south-west of China, bordering India, Nepal, Burma and Bhutan. Originally, Tibet was made up of 3 provinces: U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo. The mainstream religion in Tibet is Tibetan Buddhism, different than regular Buddhism. Tibet was ruled by the Dalai Lama, a political and spiritual leader for the Tibetans. The practices of Tibetan Buddhism are part of the Tibetan people’s culture and are incorporated into their everyday life. This way of life is one that values all beings on Earth and is followed by very few people around the globe. Today, Tibet is not governed by the Dalai Lama, and the practice of Tibetan Buddhism is diminishing. On October 9, 1950, China invaded the country of Tibet. The Chinese, under communist rule, overthrew the Dalai Lama as a political leader. Since then, the Tibetan people have set up a government-in-exile that still helps with some Tibetan problems. The Chinese, however, are the ones who own Tibet’s borders and control the government. The people who live there, influenced by the

The struggle for independence has been a pervasive theme in many nations histories and continues to be a part of Tibet’s make-up. Since the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1949, over 6,000 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and shrines have been destroyed and any mention or reference of the Dalai Lama has been banned. Heinrich Harrer and the Dalai Lama were great friends, they both taught each other valuable lessons in life. The Dalai Lama continued to spiritually preside in Tibet by praying and setting an example for all his followers. In 1949, China sent tens of thousands of troops to Tibet killing, capturing, and torturing thousands of Tibetan people as depicted in the movie. Seven Years in Tibet provides an accurate depiction of the relationship

In this day and age, society operates in constant threat of terrorism, war, and nuclear fallout; the rapid growth of international militaristic power contributes to the ever-present fear in the back of all of our minds. None of us can go through the day without hearing a newscaster or radio personality talking about the growing threat that Iran or Afghanistan or North Korea poses to the global community, but there is one State that we hear of. This threat works in a much vaster environment, and shrouds itself in cloaks of secrecy and deception – China. Although the Chinese tend to evade the mass media frenzy that constantly reports on foreign threats, their underrated affairs are nothing less than lethal. Perhaps the most disturbing

Over the past few decades, there have been many political problems in Tibet. This can be attributed to the ongoing problem between Tibet and China. Tibet had previously, for many years, been faced with occupation by the forces of the People's Republic of China in their land. This was very alarming to many people, including the highly respected Dalai Lama of Tibet. The Dalai Lama has been a very influential person in Tibet's history and many of the decisions he has made have directly affected the outcome of certain situations pertaining to the relationship between Tibet and China.

The ignorance that the Chinese have towards Tibet include the lack of recognition for the name of Tibet, the language issue in Tibet, the relocation of the Chinese people to Tibet, the religious differences and the targeting of religious figures in Tibet by law. The Chinese government doesn’t even recognize the name of Tibet, calling the area Xizang, meaning the western side (“Tibetans Not Seeking `Greater Tibet’: Dalai Lama.” 1). The Chinese authorities have forced the teachers to teach Chinese in Tibet where the Tibetan language was once the only language taught (Tofani 3). As described by Sonam Dolkar, a seamstress, “We are a minority in our own country. We are in our own country speaking a different language. It makes me very angry. There is no inner peace among Tibetans now” (Tofani 5). Dolkar described the relocation of the Chinese people into Tibet, which literally turned the Tibetans into a minority in their own country. While Tibet is an intensively religious country, China is primarily an atheist country, making it harder to the Tibetans to follow the law (Tofani 6). The Chinese intentions in Tibet are revealed through Jamphel Tsering, one of the many who was tortured by the Chinese. “First they want to eliminate the monks and the nuns because we’re politically active. Then they want to grind down the rest of the population. They’re trying to destroy our whole culture and our

In Heinrich Harrer's autobiography, his companion Peter Aufschnaiter and he escaped a British internment camp in Karachi, India during the early 50’s. They fled to the barren lands of Tibet and trek all the way to Lhasa. Durning their travels they become familiar with the land and its cultures. This book precedes Harrer’s novel Return to Tibet, which was set during the era of Chinese communism and its rule in Tibet.

Nowadays, most of Chinese have no religious belief. Even if some of them practice Buddhism, that is no pure belief, they do that to pray for being successful, earning money or keeping healthy. But Tibetan is different. Their religious consciousness is simple piety. They are peaceful and dare not to have any extravagant hope. The real pious religious believers would like to achieve their ultimate goal—make a pilgrimage to Tibet at any cost. No matter how far they live from Tibet, they need to walk there, kowtowing every three steps. This pilgrimage can even deplete them of their life store of money. But they don’t care. They are willing to do this just because they believe but for other utilitarian goals. When you see their rites, you can clearly feel their piety and peace . It’s really a striking for us to reflect on ourselves. Do we still have this kind of pure belief? Or we have already become a person who will ask “Is there any good to me?” before starting any thing? When we figure that out, we can know more about ourselves: why are we not happy? And how can we be happy? Sometimes people wants a lot, so they need to bear so much that they don’t even have time to breath. But in fact, what they truly need is limited. Once they realize that, they can have an easier and happier

Dharamsala has become home to the Tibetan refugees who have lived there for years and have raised families there. It was only after I started my internship did I learn more about the facts of the Tibetan refugee crisis and was deeply disturbed by it. Living with the Tibetan community and speaking to Tibetans, I learned that they are incredibly grateful to India for taking their people in. The 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet with over 80,000 people into Dharamsala. India’s prime minister at this time was Jawaharlal Nehru and he helped the Dalai Lama into India. Dharamsala has since then come to be known as “Little Lhasa” with the Tibetan Government in exile located there. Jawaharlal Nehru took it upon himself to ensure that these people would have enough funds to build a school of their own so that Tibetan children would be taught the Tibetan language, Buddhist philosophy, Buddhism and Tibetan culture. This school is called Tibetan Children’s Village School and is located in Upper Dharamsala and I had the pleasure of visiting the school. I sat and listened to the heart breaking storied of the students who have made difficult journeys in harsh conditions just to be able to make it into India. We are all in this together

First we discuss what Buddhism is and then discuss how it is perform in Tibet.